Laptop Slowdown: Is It Malware or an Older System?

Laptop Slowdown: Is It Malware or an Older System?

Your computer’s been running slow, hasn’t it? I’m sorry to hear that, but it may be time to face the facts and find out whether your laptop is simply old and slow, or worse, infected with a malware. These threats are more common with increased age of the computer, and often dictate whether you might as well purchase a new system.

The chances of your laptop being infected by malware are probably lower than the chances that it’s just old and slowing down with the times. It is important to factor both possibilities but running a simple malware scan to find a definite cause isn’t a bad idea at all.

If the malware scan doesn’t pick up any indicators of foul play, the next step is going to the computer specs to determine whether new hardware is needed. A simple way is to press The Windows Key and Pause Break key on your keyboard at the same time. Pressing both at the same time will bring up the System Info window of your Windows installation. There, we can start to gather information like your processor and amount of ram. You can check the power of your possibly-outdated CPU compared to others on a site called PassMark. Any CPU up to snuff will have a PassMark Score of 3000 or more. As for ram, anything under 4gb might be struggling nowadays.

Laptops are more vulnerable to slowing down than desktops because they can’t be customized as they age. Desktop computers have removable parts within their cases that are very flexible when it comes to extra features you might choose to add later. This is how many people continue to build their computers over course of time so they can continue to use some of the best current parts.

Hardware vs. Malware

Malware can do some damage to the system itself, but only if it happens to be installed on the computer. The trouble malware can cause is also reversible, so it is not likely any permanent damage can be done to a computer if it’s simply malware. On the other hand, slow hardware simply cannot be undone. Laptops will, in most cases, require a complete model upgrade to reach the speeds necessary to meet your needs.

A simple malware scan will answer all the questions that you may have in terms of figuring out what is bottle-necking the laptop computer system. This author recommends against Norton or McAfee, as those often only hurt your performance and they’re difficult to remove. They’re also littered with self-promoting ads and are too expensive for what they do. After installing Malwarebytes, a simple scan will do just fine. Afterwards, removing and it’s easy to remove. Just remember, when your computer slows down, it’s usually one of two things: malware or old hardware. After determining the root cause of the issue, it’s time to act!